Ram-driven presses, for example, punch presses, are well known in the art. Punch presses are typically configured to hold a plurality of tools for forming a variety of shapes and sizes of indentations and/or holes in sheet workpieces, for example, sheet metal. Tools of this sort commonly include a punch and die; when a punch and corresponding die are mounted in a press and located in a working position of the press, beneath the ram (in some cases, coupled directly to the ram), the punch is driven, according to a pre-programmed ram stroke, to form an indentation or a hole through a sheet workpiece which has been located between the punch and die.
Product designs, which incorporate components formed from sheet workpieces, often require that a number of different types of holes be formed through each of the workpieces, so punch presses for processing these workpieces commonly employ a plurality of the tools mounted therein for each workpiece. In these cases, the press may be programmed to automatically move the appropriate tools, for a particular workpiece, into and out from the working position of the press, in sequence, for example, via rotation of a turret, in a turret-type press, or via manipulation of a multi-tool in a single station press, or by selection and replacement of tools, out from, and back into a tool magazine of a press, which may alternately be performed manually. Components formed from the sheet workpieces can often include, in addition to the aforementioned holes, one or more value-adding features, for example, an informational marking, that could be formed when each workpiece is still in sheet form, prior to the next stage of fabrication. Alternately, or additionally, the design specifications for these components can call for some kind of inspection of the sheet workpieces prior to the next stage of fabrication in order to characterize the workpieces and/or ensure a quality of the components formed therefrom. However, additional features and/or added inspection, if not handled in a most efficient manner, can significantly add to the cost of the components. Thus, there is a need for new assemblies and methods which can facilitate a streamlined and efficient approach to processing sheet workpieces.